As Expected, Video Game Baftas Was Dominated by 'The Last of Us

It's no surprise, but any excuse to bathe in the glorious wonder that was 'The Last of Us' is fine by us.

‘The Last of Us’ is widely considered to be the best single player game ever made. It reached the summit of many ‘game of the year’ and ‘top ten’ lists – including ours – and polished everything off with five awards at last night’s Video Game Baftas.

The Last of Us cleaned up at last night's Baftas

The post-pandemic thriller is a story about the two central characters rather than the world that surrounds them, but that’s not to say the backdrop isn’t anything short of jaw dropping. In terms of story, character development and technical achievement, The Last of Us broke new ground for video games.

And that rang true when the awards were being doled out at last night’s awards ceremony. Naughty Dog – the celebrated developer behind The Last of Us - saw their game grab awards for Best Action/Adventure, Best Story, Audio Achievement, Best Performance for Ashley Johnson, who played the role of Ellie; and finally, the biggie: Best Game.

"The team worked insanely hard for three-and-a-half years, and put a lot of faith in us, so coming out the other side and bringing all these awards home to them is super exciting," the developers said.

It was Rockstar – the makers of the hugely popular, record-breaking 'Grand Theft Auto V' – that picked up the Fellowship award, recognising their outstanding contribution to the art form. "This is a tremendous honour to us as a mostly British-run company.” Dan Houser – co-founder of the company - said in his acceptance speech.

"This is the first time, as far as I know, that Bafta has given an award to 900 people. Rockstar is a team and a family and it has always been our policy to focus on collaboration. Games are made by hundreds of amazingly talented people, sometimes happily, sometimes with screaming arguments, but always with a passion for the project."

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CVG’s Rob Crossley noted that while GTA V and Rockstar are worthy recipients for awards, it’s The Last of Us and Naughty Dog that are paving the way for the future of the medium. "Grand Theft Auto is an achievement in everything that video games have been over the last 20 years," he said. "It's expansive, emergent gameplay of astounding scale. But The Last of Us probably represents where we're going to go with games in the next 10 years," he told The BBC.